‘(De)Stabilizing Nabokov’ conference critically interrogates celebrated writer

Princeton University welcomed scholars from around the world for “(De)Stabilizing Nabokov,” a two-part conference that examined the enduring influence and evolving interpretation of the celebrated novelist, critic and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov.

This structure was deliberate, said co-organizer Yuri Leving, professor of Slavic languages and literatures. A four-day in-person event, held from April 23 to April 26, 2026, attempted to unsettle three decades of interdisciplinary consensus since a monumental 1998 Cornell centennial festival, and compelled participants to confront Nabokov anew. A two-day virtual event, held from May 8 to May 10, 2026, provided a counterpoint: an exercise in rebuilding the scholarly edifice with fresh critical scaffolding. 

“This two-part conference invites us to rethink Nabokov’s legacy,” Leving said. “’Destabilizing’ unsettles received wisdom; ‘Stabilizing’ reassembles the field. Together, these sessions stage an experiment.”

“Destabilization,” the in-person portion of the conference, examined questions of authorship, ideology, geography, intertextuality and trauma, inviting participants to revisit familiar texts from unexpected perspectives. The panels reflected both the international scope of contemporary Nabokov scholarship as well as the transnational life of a writer whose career spanned Russia, Europe and the United States.

The panel “Soundscapes,” featuring Sabine Metzger (University of Stuttgart) and doctoral student Charlotte Lamontagne (Université Paris Cité and Université de Strasbourg), examined how sound mediates literary experience, considering both the acoustic qualities embedded within Nabokov’s fiction and the new interpretive possibilities that emerge when his works are adapted as audiobooks. Focusing on Nabokov’s place within the Russian literary canon, the panel “The Russian Canon” explored his often-provocative encounters with earlier writers, from his controversial translation of Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” to his nuanced engagement with the works of the Symbolist poet and novelist Fyodor Sologub. 

Monica Manolescu, professor of American literature and art at the University of Strasbourg, vice president of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society, and co-organizer of this conference, emphasized Nabokov’s continued relevance within contemporary literary scholarship, noting the range of critical lenses through which his work is now read — including, at times, as political writing attentive to questions of tyranny and as a site for feminist reinterpretation. “For all these reasons, I think that Nabokov is a contemporary writer,” she said. “I'm not saying that we should read him from the present, because that would be very reductive, but keeping him in his context and understanding his nuances, given the period when he wrote.”

The University’s own collections also played a role in the weekend’s proceedings. Attendees were invited to a special literary exhibition highlighting Nabokov materials held by the University, presented by Thomas Keenan-Dormany, Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies librarian, underscoring Princeton’s longstanding connections to the study of Russian and comparative literature. Conference participants also attended a screening of Nabokov’s “Magic Lantern,” a film by Leving, and toured the newly reopened Princeton University Art Museum. Princeton is also home to Nabokov Online Journal, which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2027.

The subsequent online program, “Stabilizing Nabokov,” also brought together scholars from multiple continents who reflected on the in-person discussions and explored how new approaches might reshape the field.

In his keynote, Brian Boyd, University Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Auckland and preeminent Nabokov biographer, explored the broader evolution of critical responses to Nabokov’s work, tracing the history of Nabokov studies across six distinct generations of scholars. 

The panel “Playful Patterns,” with Jake McClure (Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto), independent scholar Valery Timofeev and Dmitry Zuev (Center for Digital Archival Research of the National Research, Higher School of Economics), explored how games, patterns and playful forms operate as organizing principles in Nabokov’s work — such as the centrality of tennis or trees in Nabokov’s artistic universe —  and the literary cultural and aesthetic traditions that underpin these recurring motifs. 

“Critical Turn,” featuring graduate student Matheus Medeiros Santos (University of São Paulo), Marcin Rytel (Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw) and independent scholar Max Prokofiev, explored how Nabokov’s work challenges established modes of literary criticism, revisiting questions of interpretation, reading practices and critical methodology to reveal new ways of understanding his fiction and its place within broader intellectual debates.

“(De)Stabilizing Nabokov” also reflected a commitment to cultivating a new generation of Nabokov scholars, Leving said, creating an intellectual space that welcomed the perspectives of junior researchers and Ph.D. students alongside established figures in the field. “That's usually the secret for a good conference,” he said.

Ewan McPhee and Eric Sanchez, Ph.D. candidates in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature and students in Leving’s spring 2026 graduate seminar, “Nabokov: The Russian Period,” assisted Leving with the conference. “[As a student], I'm reading books and articles which are canonical and were paradigm-shifting for their time, but are 15, 30 or more years old,” Sanchez said. “This [conference] showcases scholarly attitudes and the research that people are interested in and doing now.”

Leving expressed a hope that the conference will ultimately lead to a thematic collection of essays. “My other hope is that Ewan and Eric, in 25 years, will be organizing a conference on Nabokov themselves,” he said. “When you write a book on an author, you become, in a sense, invested in his legacy.”

“(De)Stabilizing Nabokov” was co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Department of English, the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Fund for Irish Studies, the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication, the Humanities Council, the International Vladimir Nabokov Society and the Vladimir Nabokov Literary Foundation. Labyrinth Books served as community partner. 

Select recordings will be posted to nabokov.event.princeton.edu/livestream.